Rick's Ramblings

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Cabin Day 12, 2013

An early start today. I was awake at a little after 5:00 and got up to visit the bathroom. It was cold in the cabin, so I kicked the thermostat up from 64° to 65°. I had laid a fire in the wood stove last night, but did not want to start that yet as I'd need to feed it wood and would not get back to sleep. Well, sleep was not to come anyway.

The heater has three cycles when it comes on. There is a pre-start/purge cycle where it blows air through the system to purge any propane. Second, it lights the propane burner (whoosh) and begins to heat the air. Third, the fan comes on to blow air through ductwork and heat the house. The first phase started, but the second never came. We laid in bed waiting and after 5 minutes or so, I knew something was wrong.

The fix was easy. I had replaced batteries in the thermostat yesterday, as I do each year, and apparently did not do a good job of getting the cover back on the thermostat. So, it was not making good/proper connections. When I reseated it, I heard "whoosh". However, by now I was wide awake.

So, I started both the furnace and the wood stove, turned on the coffee, and we started our day. It was still pitch black outside.

Breakfast was a hash of potatoes, onions and bacon topped with an over-easy egg. The cabin still smells great.

A walk to the bottom with the girls was next.

I am running the generator for a while this morning because it is a bit cloudy and predicted to be cloudy over the next few days. I let it run during showers (to cover any electricity needed by the water pump) and for Lynne to dry her hair. I hate the noisy thing, but it is necessary without the wind turbine running.

I added distilled water to the batteries yesterday and kicked off an equalization charge. However, I doubt they will actually equalize (overcharge them) until after we leave and there is no electrical demand.

We are hearing about a weather front passing through on the radio. We are to get a few inches of snow. But, the midwest is threatened with thunderstorms, high winds and possible tornados on Friday, so we need to watch that carefully before deciding to drive through that part of the country.

This morning a guy came by from a logging company in Laramie to give us an estimate on cleaning up the cut area west of the cabin. Nice guy. Knew what to do. Gave us a reasonable estimate, so we agreed to have his company do the work next year when we are here.

The rest of the day was filled with chores, games on the iPad, dog walks (walked to the property for sale adjacent to us). Grilled steaks and baked potatoes for dinner with a nice salad. Watched Survivor on TV, and now we are bushed again! Cabin time. Read about it on Lynne's blog.

Going to do some reading, make coffee, lay a fire for the morning and "hit the sack".

G'night.

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